Girl, 13, helps Mexico's killers for 650 dollars a month

By Franz Smets Aug 9, 2011, 4:06 GMT

Mexico City - Police could hardly believe their eyes: a 13-year-old girl was arrested after a fierce gunbattle near Guadalajara between security forces and suspected members Los Zetas, one of Mexico's most feared criminal gangs.

Jalisco state security director Francisco Alejandro Solorio said the child was not an isolated case: 'We are noticing that the cartels are recruiting more and more underage girls, and also more minors.'

Similar trends are being noticed in states including Veracruz and Zacatecas. Underage girls are used for both killings and to satisfy the sexual appetites of gang members.

The 13-year-old, identified by the alias 'Pearl,' was arrested Sunday in a rural area near Guadalajara with two men. No one was wounded in the clash, and most of the suspects fled the scene.

Only a few days earlier, a boy who has since turned 15 was arrested in Cuernavaca, near Mexico City. He had started to kill, kidnap and extort for a cartel at age 11.

In mid-June, a 16-year-old girl and accused killer caught Mexico's attention.

Perhaps most infamously, Edgar Jimenez Lugo, 14, alias 'El Ponchis,' was sentenced last month to three years in jail - the maximum for a minor in the state of Morelos.

He had been convicted of crimes including torturing and killing four people whose bodies were later hung from a bridge over the highway between Mexico City and Acapulco. El Ponchis allegedly belonged to the South Pacific Cartel, starting his criminal career at 11.

Mexico's drug wars have claimed more than 40,000 lives since December 2006, so there is a lot of work in the gangs. The cartels favour young recruits, who face lighter penalties if arrested as juveniles.

While there are no official figures, independent research estimates the minors working for organized crime gangs in Mexico at 20,000.

Before his death in 2009, drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva reportedly was able to live largely undisturbed in a residential neighbourhood of Cuernavaca, protected by corrupt police and politicians who were on his payroll. Hedging his bets, he also employed a network of so-called halcones, or hawks, who were mostly youngsters, including many girls, to closely monitor the activities of security forces in the city.

'Pearl' admitted that she worked as a 'hawk' and said she joined the gang 'out of need.' Los Zetas paid her 4,000 pesos (325 dollars) every two weeks to keep the group informed about the local movements of the federal and state police, she said.

Her parents, in the state of Zacatecas further north, knew of her involvement with a criminal gang, police said. However, all their efforts to get her back home and away from such influences failed.